5 day break...

Christmas will be here again next year many of our love ones will not how will people feel if they have family round only to find a few days later they and the family have the virus and one of them dies from it. yes many elderly relations may not see next Christmas due to age or health but i know i would be heartbroken to know i had the virus and passed it round. my Christmas will just be partner and me i have COPD so have been avoiding people where possible for months. I'd rather carry on like this for a bit longer than have a bigger pandemic next year.

We are self isolating from now until Xmas day as a sensible precaution; ordering online so no shops and no other contacts, as we have been advised if we want a safe family Xmas. We can only control our own situation, that’s all we can do.

Puzzler61...you're right ..one of my d.i.l is a nurse practitioner..she will be seeing patients right up until Christmas, my two sons in this country are both out and about re their construction business...so much as it breaks my heart ,like you,it will be just the two of us here,Christmas presents are all bagged up ready for doorstep drop offs...kisses will be blown...from a distance..

Why does it have to be legalised by the government? Can we not just use our own individual common sense? We have limited Xmas to two days with our mum who would have been alone otherwise. At 85 she may not have many more Xmas’s and would much prefer to take a smaller risk than be left on her own. Our son and two children will come late Boxing Day and leave early the next day. I know that we are extremely lucky to be able to have separate bathrooms and space but we will take every single precaution we can to keep her safe.

Let us all just mix compassion with common sense this year!

Think I'm with Fanny on this. Past 'precautions' don't seem to have worked particularly well.

I think Christmas should be cancelled. Impose lockdown before Christmas and everyone knows exactly what to do. Some people will never do the right thing.

The problem is that, although we are being very good and careful, so many don't understand the different bubbles. One example was a man telling my daughter he is meeting two other households on Christmas Day then 1 other on Boxing Day and then another the next day. He could not see he had got it wrong. After all, he wasn't meeting them all at once!

By the way DH and I are staying home alone for the 5 days.
We’ll happily do so if it gives us all more freedom next year.

Prior to the 5 days of allowed socialising many folk will have been popping into shops, picking up prescriptions, visiting the hairdresser’s, dentist, etc. and the virus can be picked up anywhere.
The spreading will then be possible while people sit indoors for several hours with different family members on different days.
It’s everything we’ve been trying to avoid for months - and now we’re allowed to do it. It’s utterly barking mad!

Ellianne I'm not convinced that 'taking precautions' and being 'exceptionally cautious' actually work that well.

I have received a shielding text from the Scottish Govt, basically advising against it. There is your answer!

Christmas will be the superspreader.

I agree, and wish they would now just ban it outright, instead of giving us a 'choice'.

That is the only way that we could tell my elderly mother that she can't come to us for Christmas without her holding it againt us for ever more.
She would still be extremely upset at being alone at this time of year (after my dad died three years ago, she made it quite clear that she never ever wanted to be alone at Christmas), but would accept that it was out of our hands.

The tension in our house is unbearable at the moment because of this.

The current situation is utterly terrifying.
I've heard many HCPs on the radio (4,5, LBC) and they are very scared.
It seems far worse than April.
And how the virus is acting in the South is odd too.
Nothing seems to make sense anymore.

farview it is what it is, and I agree cases will definitely rise in January. But let's try and look on the brighter side. A lot of those mixing 3 households over the five day period will be exceptionally careful. We all know how to take precautions. I also think we need to trust those other households we are seeing.